[tom406]

Very eloquent reply to the rebody issue, and I would agree. I would even argue that implanting the firewall and cowl with all the hidden numbers into a gennie, uncut body could be "more correct" than putting quarters, rockers, floors, and wheelwells into a rusty/tubbed/crashed "real" car, particularly if the rebody uses a donor from the same plant and from the same approximate date. Like anything, it really depends on the quality of the restoration, or in the case of a rebody, the thoroughness of the job. If someone buys a title and a couple of tags and tries to "build" a car out of thin air, odds are there are going to be many details overlooked and corners cut (cars built for resale still sporting 10 bolt rearends, or no hangers for dual exhaust, small block fuel lines, etc). However, if someone who knows the cars and cares starts with an essentially complete, but horribly rusted supercar, and transfers EVERYTHING to the bare virgin hulk of a 40,000 mile So California based six cylinder car, I'm cool with it. To me, the "soul" kind of dissipates when an original car is completely disassembled and redone, so the body becomes just another component for the restoration effort.

Where do you stand on the issue? Here's a scenario: You just found a '69 Yenko Chevelle in a guy's back yard. Been there since the gas crisis in '73. He shot oil into the cylinders and covered the engine bay with gear oil. The wife wanted the garage so it went outside, but he "protected" it with a nice blue tarp. Oh, and he forgot to rinse the bottom after he launched his boat into salt water in late '72. So everythings there, down to the date coded smog. But there are no floors to speak of from the firewall back. Now coincidentally, at home you have a 307/3 speed '69 Chevelle you picked up from a retiree the year before. It's as honest as Mother Teresa, was built just 3 weeks prior to the Yenko at the same plant,and has the same interior to boot! So...what do you do? What do you do......